Down the Well Again?
by ShadowMage21 ShadowWarrior16
Summary: What happens when Sota's best friend goes back to the past with Kagome? I dunno, you'll just have to read to find out. :) Please R&R. P.S. Written only by ShadowMage, ShadowWarrior did NOT help.


Down the Well. . .Again?  
  
Chapter One: A New Person for the Past  
  
By: ShadowMage21  
  
Mineh Sakara's worn sandals slapped loudly against the ground as she walked toward the Higurashi house. Her raggedy t-shirt and shorts were pressed against her skin by the wind that whipped her black braid around, causing the metal tube that kept it braided to slap painfully at the backs of her legs. She had a faded red backpack on and was carrying a book and some papers. As she neared the house she saw Sota's (Sota was her best and practically only friend in school) older sister Kagome running up the path to the house ahead of her. She appeared to have come from the Higurashi's mini-shrine. As she ran she stumbled and dropped what looked like a small jar of purple glass shards. It broke as it hit the ground and Kagome stopped running, talking to herself as she quickly picked up the shards.  
  
"Oh great, this is just perfect. I have a math test tomorrow that I haven't studied for and now this."  
  
She grabbed what she thought to be the last of the shards and finished her dash to the house, going strait to her room to study as soon as she had kicked her shoes off and deposited the backpack she had been wearing.  
  
After watching this with mild interest Mineh continued on to the door of the house and knocked. When Mrs. Higurashi opened the door she gave her Sota's homework (he was sick) and declined an offer to come in for cookies, saying she needed to get home and do her homework.   
  
As she ran down the path to the main street she tripped over a rock and landed on the ground with a soft thud, breaking the fall with her hands. She felt a sharp pain in her left hand and picked it up to see a shard of purple glass imbedded in her bloody palm. She tried pulling it out with first her fingers and then her teeth, when neither succeeded she gave up and continued home.   
  
When she got back to her family's apartment she took a key out of her backpack and opened the door. She left her shoes by the front door after closing and locking it. She took a can of soda out of the refrigerator in the cramped kitchen and headed down the hall to her room soda in hand. Upon entering her room she locked the door and opened the window. She set the soda on a small table by her bed and flopped down on the piece of furniture in question with a pencil, paper and her backpack to start on homework. She had completely forgotten the glass in her hand over which the skin was already starting to heal.  
  
Mineh most have dozed off because she awoke to a woman's voice shouting,  
  
"Mineh, get out here and eat your dinner before I throw it away."  
  
"Okay." Mineh shouted back as she got off the bed, unlocked her door and walked out to the kitchen.   
  
A slightly attractive blond woman with the same blue-gray eyes as Mineh sat on the couch watching t.v. with a sandwich and a beer. Two beer cans already lay on the floor in front of her.  
  
"That's yours." she said, pointing to a sandwich on the counter. "Grab a soda and then I don't want to see you until tomorrow morning."  
  
"Yes Mom." Mineh replied as she took the sandwich and another soda.  
  
She closed the refrigerator with her foot and went back to her room. She locked her door again and sat on her bed, finishing her homework as she ate her sandwich. It was eight when she finished and took a shower.   
  
As she climbed into bed she heard the front door open and an angry voice call out, "Hey, Asaku, where's my food?"  
  
'Dad's drunk again' Mineh thought as she snuggled down under the covers and eventually she fell asleep.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile in her room Kagome had taken a break from studying. She sat at her desk eating a rice ball as she idly glanced at the Shikon jewel shards in a pile on her desk. She stood up suddenly and went down stairs to get a new jar for them. When she arrived back upstairs she carefully counted the shards as she placed them one by one into the jar, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. . .nine? Oh-no where was the ninth shard!? She ran outside to the spot where she had dropped the jar. She searched, using a flash light to help her but she could neither see nor sense a jewel shard. After about fifteen minutes of fevered searching she walked dejectedly back up to her room. Inu-Yasha would be furious, but he would have to wait to find out, she had a math test tomorrow and a date with Hojo on Wednesday. She would tell him when she returned to the feudal era on Friday afternoon. Besides, she might find the shard in the next four days and not have to tell Inu-Yasha at all. With this hopeful thought she returned to studying.  
  
~*~*~   
  
Mineh slept through her alarm the next morning and ended up missing the bus. She started the long run to school, knowing that asking her parents for a ride was a waste of time, they would just yell at her about being lazy and end the lecture by not giving her a ride. About three blocks from the school she stopped to catch her breath before finishing the run. She made it to class just as the bell rang. Still breathing heavily Mineh copied the day's schedule into her agenda book, then she took out her homework and handed to the teacher when she came by to collect it. The rest of the day was a blur. After school she went to the park and did most of her homework on a bench before heading to the Higurashi's to give Sota his homework. At the Higurashi's Mrs. Higurashi thanked her, assured her Sota would be back in school tomorrow and invited her in for cookies and milk. Today she accepted, she had very little homework left and doubtless at home her father would be in a bad mood from the hangover caused by last nights drunkenness. It was almost five by the time she started home and five-thirty by the time she got there. Her mother wasn't home and her father was asleep so she made herself a couple riceballs for dinner and a soda. She retired to her room to eat and finish homework. She took her shower at seven and when she fell asleep at eight, her mother still wasn't home.  
  
~*~*~   
  
Four days later- Friday afternoon  
  
It was a cloudy afternoon that found Sota and Mineh at the Higurashi's kitchen table, doing their homework together.   
  
Sota's mother was busy cleaning, so when they asked her for help with a particularly hard math problem she told Sota, "Your sister has just left to visit the mini-shrine before she leaves. If you hurry you can ask her."  
  
Sota and Mineh ran to the mini-shrine carrying their math books. They caught up to Kagome just as she had reached the door of the mini-shrine. She seemed rather flustered and in a hurry but she took the time to explain the math problem. Yelling his thanks after him Sota ran back up to the house calling for Mineh to follow. But Mineh lingered for a moment longer and watched Kagome jump into the well but not come back out. She was speculating as to what had happened when she was pulled out of her imaginings by Sota's voice calling her name.   
  
"Coming!" she responded and ran up to the house, glancing back at the mini-shrine over her shoulder a few times as she ran.  
  
Mineh left at four thirty but after Sota had stopped waving and gone back inside she doubled back to the mini-shrine. She looked around for anyone who could be watching before sneaking in and jumping into the well. But instead of hitting the solid dirt bottom of the well she was suddenly floating and her left hand and everything around her was glowing purple. She landed with a thump at the bottom of the well but now there were vines growing down into the well and she used these to climb out. She got to the top and found herself not in the mini-shrine but in a large forest.   
  
She called out, "Hello! Hello? Is there anyone out there?" The was no reply, everything was silent save for the rustling of the trees in the wind and the chirping of the birds. . . 


End file.
